Modern-day Delhi has been the seat of political power for successive empires. It is popularly known to be made up of seven cities that served as capitals from 3000 BC to 17th century AD. Over the years it has evolved into a city of monuments. Travelling on Delhi’s roads everyday could make one blind to ruins that dot its landscape, relics of a past capable of transporting one to a reality vastly different from the one that surrounds it now. Here we collate these interesting bits from the past that have slipped into the crevices of time.

Rupinder Sharma is a Delhi-based photojournalist

In the midst of rubble: Pir Ghaib, a 14th-century stepwell (baoli), built during the Tughlaq period, lies in the vicinity of the Hindu Rao Hospital. Named after Hindu Rao, this well had provided water to the British who had taken refuge in the complex during the siege of Delhi in 1857.

Headless thieves:Chor Minar or ‘Tower of Thieves’ is a 13th-century minaret in Hauz Khas. It was built during Alauddin Khilji’s reign when Delhi served as the capital. Urban legend has it that its 225 holes were utilised to display severed heads of thieves. However, according to some historians, Khilji had slaughtered a settlement of Mongols nearby and put their heads on display, as an outcome of his constant combat with them, to stop them from reuniting with their people in another Mongol settlement in Delhi, the present-day ‘Mongolpuri’. During the Mongol raid by Ali Beg, Tartaq and Targhi (1305), 8,000 Mongol prisoners were executed and their heads displayed from the towers around Siri Fort.

Window to the world: Khirki Masjid is another elaborate mosque credited to Junan Shah. It has 81 domes, 180 columns and 15 prayer arches. The in-built red sandstone windows on the outer walls ensure ventilation and give the mosque its unique name.

Fault in our stars: In the compound that now houses the staff quarters of the Hindu Rao Hospital is an ancient observatory as well as the house of William Fraser, a civil servant in British India. Pir Ghaib was possibly a hunting lodge of the Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq (1351-88) and later a mosque, but it is also the oldest surviving observatory in India. A circular hole on top of the structure that goes all the way down to the central chamber is said to be part of the ancient observatory. It had a role to play during the rebellion of 1857.

A garden remembers: Princess Roshanara, Shah Jahan’s daughter, is an important historical figure. Her tomb near sabzi mandi in North Delhi is in shambles. A huge, surprisingly well-maintained garden contradicts the condition of the tomb. The original garden built by Roshanara in AD 1640 was named after her. A raised canal ran through it, and was bordered on both sides by flowering plants. The garden had a natural spring. The princess loved her garden so much that she wished to be buried there after death.

Long forgotten: Shaikh Yusuf Qattal was a disciple of Qazi Jalauddin of Lahore. He died in 1527. His tomb in Malaviya Nagar is a 12 pillared chhatri with a kangura pattern parapet, a mihrab with a pendant design inscribed with a kalima in the Kufic script adorns it.

Unmarked graves: The Wazipur complex is a cluster of five tombs of unknown people, two-walled mosques, a stepwell (baoli) and a platform for graves built during the Lodhi period. The complex and its surrounding lands are being encroached upon by residents who live nearby.

Published on May 5, 2017